Doe rabbits and their litters are kept together in the same cage at least until weaning time. The bunnies, during the time spent with their mother, are fed on mother's milk and special bunny feed. Bunny feed is usually specially formulated for growing litters and is preferably kept separate from the doe feed.
Does have a tendency to eat bunny food, depriving the bunnies of nutrients needed at a critical time of development. Special free choice "creep feeders" have been developed for bunny feed that have small trough openings that only the small bunnies can enter. Creep feeders are produced that may be placed entirely within the cage. Bunny feeders are also produced in free choice configurations similar to the typical free choice rabbit feeders having a feed trough within the cage and a feed hopper mounted to the cage exterior. The "in cage" creep feeders are undesirable because the cage door must be opened to gain access to the feed hopper. The "outside hopper" creep feeders are more desirable, with free access to the exterior hoppers. Even so, the "outside hopper" free choice type feeders are not without substantial drawbacks.
Outside hopper feeders are typically mounted on a screen wall of a hutch with a trough extending through an opening cut through the screen. It is desirable to keep the screen opening size at a minimum in order to maintain the structural integrity of the hutch. Often, however, bunny creep feeders are attached directly to an adult creep feeder, with both troughs projecting through the screen. The combined troughs require a substantially larger screen opening due in part to the combined feeder trough size and to the trough walls leading to their respective hoppers. The enlarged mounting openings substantially weaken the screen wall and seriously decrease the structural integrity of the hutch.
Another difficulty with free choice feeders is loss of feed. Does with litters, and other rabbits, are not dainty in their eating habits and frequently scratch in the feed troughs to get access to more feed. Some of the feed is therefore forced over the front lip of the trough. Depending upon the hutch, the rabbit feed either drops onto a solid floor or through the open mesh of a screen floor. Feed dropped through a screen floor is wasted. Feed dropped onto a solid floor can quickly become contaminated. Either way, the dropped feed is wasted and, as a result, represents a sizable percentage of the overall costs for keeping rabbits.
The present invention eliminates both above problems by providing a bunny feeder that is adapted to mount to a creep feeder so the troughs of both can fit through a relatively small screen opening. The bunny trough is situated below the creep feed trough and includes a forward wall that extends up to an edge spaced forward of the creep feed trough lip. Doe feed that is scratched from the creep feed trough will drop into the bunny feed trough where it may be consumed by the bunnies. The doe feed is not wasted and represents only a small part of the bunny diet so no harmful growth rate effects occur.